short sweet iterations

sometimes not so short or sweet, but it made a nice-sounding title.

yesterday a few of my colleagues and i participated in a focus group for one of the grad students here who is studying workplace-simulated learning environments. we talked about the way real life has been mirrored in the upper-levels academia to which we as students have ascended thus far. subjects included those of collaboration, accountability, problem-solving/designing, usability, awareness, and iteration.

this last bit became most interesting to me. we were asked about the cycles we've seen in the coursework we've been doing. taking a deep deep look at things, i was able to see it:

we approach the problem. we evaluate it. we make plans, present solutions, possibilities, and we work towards achieving those solutions. we come up against obstacles, limitations. we evaluate those new problems, and our plans change to accomodate what we learn. and we keep going.

a little more deep thought led me to see the same pattern in everything. we come to this life, we see things through a one-way set of eyes, we carry billions of expectations with us. and then we meet other people. new situations. and all of those things sometimes prove our own preconcieved notions wrong, so we adapt. we grow and change and re-evaluate ourselves and our lives.

Wilson Bateman, a friend who was in the group, responded: "It's just like the scientific method." and i agreed, yes, it is!

i kept thinking about that idea all of yesterday. we make plans. we want things. we do things. and we make mistakes. how do we know that they're mistakes? the world proves it to us. guilt. pain. horror. etc. and we either re-evaluate and change or we don't get any further.

someday i think i'll write more about this--the pride cycle and the scientific method. it's pretty cool how similar the two things are.